Posted by: thepinetree on 04/05/2020 03:17 PM
Updated by: thepinetree on 04/05/2020 03:17 PM
Expires: 01/01/2025 12:00 AM
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President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus April 4th Update
Washington, DC...It’s a busy time. Very busy time. And let me begin by again expressing our support, solidarity, and love for the people of our great country. We’re fighting for you and we’re enduring all of this together. And we will soon prevail together. We’re making a lot of progress. We appreciate all of the great assistance from the governors and people within the states. The relationships have been, really, very good. I spoke with Governor Cuomo. We’re working very hard to get additional things to New York as quickly as possible.
We — as you know, we took care of the hospital, including personnel — the 2,500 beds that we build just recently at Javits, including personnel. And we opened it up to COVID, and that’s something that we also did in Louisiana, and we’re doing it in Dallas.
So we have a lot of not only hospitals being built, but now we’re manning the hospitals because states are, in many cases, unable to get additional people to work. It’s — it’s just an incredible situation. There’s never been anything like this.
One of the most important issues in battling this pandemic is coordinating the delivery of the crucial supplies throughout the nation based upon the most accurate information available. And we’ve got the best healthcare and disaster experts anywhere in the world, and everybody will tell you that, and we’re dealing with big parts of the world on helping them also through this horrible situation where 151 — still, 151 nations are going through it.
We’re working to ensure that the supplies are delivered where and when they’re needed, and in some cases, we’re telling governors we can’t go there because we don’t think you need it and we think someplace else needs it. And pretty much, so far, we’ve been right about that. And we’ll continue to do it.
As it really gets — this will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week. And there’ll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn’t done. But there will be death.
We’re looking for an obvious focus in the hardest-hit regions. Some of them are obvious and some aren’t so obvious. They spring up. They come and they — they hit you like you got hit by a club, an area that wasn’t at all bothered. You look at what’s going on in New Jersey — the governor is doing an excellent job, by the way — but how that sprang up.
Every decision that we’re making is made to save lives. It’s really our sole consideration. We want to save lives. We want as few lives lost as possible. It’s therefore critical that certain media outlets stop spreading false rumors and creating fear and even panic with the public. It’s just incredible. I could name them, but it’s the same ones. Always the same ones. I guess they’re looking for ratings. I don’t know what they’re looking for. So bad for our country and so bad — the people understand it. You look at the levels and approval ratings, and they’re the lowest they’ve ever been for media. It’s so bad for — for our country. So bad for the world. You ought to put it together for a little while, get this over with, and then go back to your fake news.
During a national emergency, it’s just essential that the federal decision makers cut through the fog of confusion in order to follow the facts and the science. Many hospital administrators that we’ve been in touch with, even in the really hotspots — you know what they are — are communicating directly with us that their level of supplies are meeting essential needs. And at the current time, they’re really thrilled to be where they are. Whenever local shortages are reported, we’re asking states to immediately meet the demand. And we’re stockpiling large amounts in different areas — in different areas. And we’re going to be discussing that in a little while.
But we want distributions to be made on a fair basis. We have to take care of a large country, not just certain areas of the country. But no matter where we’re — we’ve been there and we’ve been there very strongly. I want to thank FEMA. I want to thank the Army Corps of Engineers. I want to thank our military for what they’re doing.
And we’re going to be adding a tremendous amount of military to help supplement the states — thousands of soldiers, thousands of medical workers, professionals, nurses, doctors. And it’ll be a large number. It’ll be — we’ll be telling them over the next very short period where they’re going. And they’re going into war. They’re going into a battle that they’ve never really trained for. Nobody has trained for this; nobody has seen this, I would say, since 1917, which was the greatest of them all. The greatest of this type of battle. Probably the greatest of them all. Right? 1917. Up to 100 million people were killed.
In addition, we’re working directly with hospitals and existing suppliers and distributors to ensure that those with the greatest need are prioritized. And that need changes. One day it’s one state or one locale, one city. And then all of a sudden, they’re starting to do well. We had some very good reports coming out of the State of Washington, coming out of various parts of California — so, areas that we were getting ready to really hit hard. We can now go to other areas.
It looks like New York is going to be hit very hard. And Louisiana is just amazing the way it just sprang up. And everyone is doing a good job but they’re going to be hit hard.
Areas in the country that are not experiencing large-scale infections are requesting supplies beyond what their present circumstances require. And we talk to them and we tell them and we explain it, and for the most part they’re good with it. We think we’re right.
It’s very understandable that officials would seek to get the most they can get for their communities, but the fears of the shortages have led to inflated requests. We have some states and areas where they’re just asking for far more. I mean, look, we had one state asking for 40,000 ventilators. Forty thousand. Think of it: 40,000. It’s not possible. They won’t need that many, and now they’re admitting they don’t need that many. But we’re getting as many as we can to them.
Again, nobody has ever seen anything like this in terms of ventilators, in terms of protective equipment and uniforms and outfits. But it makes it more difficult for distributors to prioritize the real need, and it could intentionally and, you know — look, they — everybody has proper intentions but they want to make sure they’re 100 percent. And sometimes, when they know they don’t need it, they want it anyway. It gives them that extra feeling of satisfaction, but we just can’t do that. It’s not even possible to think about it.
And that’s why — and we’re a backup. Remember, we’re a backup. We’re the greatest backup that ever existed for the states, especially when we start getting into the hospital building business and getting into the medical center building business, where you see we built many hospitals — numerous hospitals in some states — and medical centers.
That’s why my administration has been requesting actual usage numbers directly from the states and hospitals to meet their needs, because we want to be ready when — when the brunt of it comes, which is coming quickly; you see it. You see it as sure as you can see it. And when the brunt of it comes, we want to be ready to hit the area that needs it. We don’t want to have spent everything in one area, and they don’t need it there to anywhere near the extent.
So let me be extremely clear about one point: We will move heaven and earth to safeguard our great American citizens. We will continue to use every power, every authority, every single resource we’ve got to keep our people healthy, safe, secure, and to get this thing over with. We want to finish this war. We have to get back to work. We have to get — we have to open our country again. We have to open our country again. We don’t want to be doing this for months and months and months. We’re going to open our country again. This country wasn’t meant for this. Few were. Few were. But we have to open our country again.
I just spoke with the commissioners, leaders of, I would say, virtually all of the sports leagues: Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Baseball, Major League Baseball; Roger Goodell Commissioner of the National Football League; Adam Silver Commissioner of the National Basketball Association; Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the National Hockey League; Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA Tour; Cathy Engelbert, Commissioner of the Women’s National Basketball Association; Dana White, the Ultimate Fighting Championship; Vince McMahon President of the WWE; Don Garber, Commissioner of Major League Soccer; Steve Phelps, President of NASCAR; Michael Whan, Commissioner of the LPGA; Roger Penske, Founder and Chairman Penske Corp.; and Drew Fleming, President of the Breeders’ Cup.
And there were a couple of others on, and these are all the great leaders of sport. And they want to get back. They got to get back. They can’t do this. Their sports weren’t designed for it. The whole concept of our nation wasn’t designed for it. We’re going to have to get back. We want to get back soon — very soon.
For example — and I have to say, we’re using the Defense Production Act very powerfully. In some cas- — times directly; in many cases, indirectly. Just the threat of it is usually enough.
But FEMA and HHS have ordered 180 million — think of that — 180 million. Who ever heard of 180 million N95 masks? And we’re working now with 3M to see whether or not that all works out, but we want them to help our country. And I think it’s going to be okay. We’re going to soon let you know. But we need the masks. We don’t want other people getting it, and that’s why we’re — that’s why we’re instituting a lot of Defense Production Act, you could call it, retaliations because that’s what it is; it’s a retaliation.
If people don’t — if people don’t give us what we need for our people, we’re going to be very tough, and we’ve been very tough. Usually we don’t have to use it, but we’ve used it plenty. It’s turning out more and more, unfortunately. And it works very well.
Our Supply Chain Logistics Task Force, led by Admiral John Polowczyk, who’s doing a fantastic job, will ensure they’re distributed to the healthcare and critical infrastructure workers in the areas with the most pressing requirements. That’s the 60 million masks that we’re talking about and the hundred and — 180 million N95 masks. A hundred and eighty million. Who ever heard of 180 million masks?
And this is a incredible thing. A lot of times — and we have to stop playing this game — if a governor wants 200 ventilators, and I say, “No, we’re going to send you 1,000. We think you need more than 200,” and then the media meets with the governor and they say, “Oh, you got more. Well, it’s not enough. The President should have sent more.” So he’s asking for 200. We give him 1,000. They say, “How’s the President doing?” “He should have given more.” Because that’s politics. That’s politics. And that’s unfortunate, because we can’t play that game.
And, you know, that’s one party doing it, and the other party is happy. But they’re all really happy because they should have been doing this work themselves for a long period of time. Many of their cupboards were bare.
With respect to the ventilators, FEMA and HHS continue to monitor the data on an hourly basis where provided by the states. In order to most effectively target the distribution of supplies, we’ve been asking states to provide us with daily updates on the number of ventilators and their utilization rates, because some states have more ventilators than they need. They don’t even like to admit it. They’ll admit it when everything is over, but that’s — it doesn’t help us very much.
This data is vitally necessary so that we can ensure ventilators are getting to the right place at the right time. FEMA, HHS, DOD are developing resources within the next 24 hours. They will have a whole different set of criteria. Every day, it’s different criteria. Every day, this horrible, invisible enemy changes a course. It changes course.
If you were fighting the normal fight, you’d know what’s happening. Here is: They hit one, they hit another, they hit another state. They hit areas that you didn’t expect. But we’re watching it and we’re capturing it.
Our goal is to stay several days ahead of the needs in each state, but we can only do that if the cities and states utilize real-time local knowledge to provide timely and precise data about actual usage. So we have to be able to do that. And if a state has ventilators, as an example, that they know they’re not going to need, they should give them over and we should move them with the other ones. We have now 10,000 in our pipeline, and stockpiled 10,000 — close.
And we’re moving some into New York, so we’re going to need some additional. We’re moving some into New York City and state, separately. And we’re bringing them to the point where they’ll need them.
I can also report that, at my direction, 1,000 military personnel are deploying to New York City to assist where they’re needed the most. That’s the hottest of all the hotspots. New Jersey is right there. It’s right next to it. And I don’t know if that’s overflow, but New Jersey is — it’s a great state and it’s a very — it’s a crowded state also, where you have people on top of people. It’s always tough. But we’re bringing some of the ventilators. We got some for New Jersey just yesterday, and we’re going to bring them some more, including doctors.
We’re getting doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists, and other support workers. These are from the military. We’re taking people now out of our military. We’ve been doing it, but now we’re doing it on a larger basis. And I want to thank Secretary of Defense Esper, who will detail some of what we’re doing, tomorrow and Monday.
As the situation in Washington State continues to stabilize, we’re returning a 300-bed federal medical station to a different location — so where we need it. And we appreciate that. They won’t be needing it, and we appreciate them letting us know. We’re going to move it to a different location. It was already built.
Many governors initially made large requests for federal support for their states in anticipation of a greater number of cases, but the residents of Washington State have done a really good job of following the federal distancing guidelines. They really have.
I’m also pleased to report that Oregon will be spending and sending — they’re spending a lot of money because they really did stockpile well, and they’re also sending 140 ventilators directly to New York, which we appreciate.
And I want to thank the Vice President for the great work he’s doing every day, dealing with our nation’s governors. Mike Pence has been working day and night on this, and we want to get it over. He’s got to get a little more sleep than he’s getting. He hasn’t been getting very much, I will tell you that.
And we’re all in this together, and it’s a beautiful thing to see how people are joining forces to help one another. They really are.
In addition to our courageous doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers, I also want to thank the incredible food supply workers who are feeding our nation. I spoke just a little while ago to Senator Boozman. You know Senator Boozman; we all do. He’s a great senator. He’s a great person. We spoke just this morning, and we discussed how important it is to keep our farmers and ranchers, processors, and distributors in our nation’s prayers. And I want to thank the senator for the incredible job he’s been doing. And a lot of the senators and congressmen and everyone — everybody is working very hard.
My administration is working very aggressively to pioneer new medical countermeasures to treat and prevent infection. Working on a lot of things. We must utilize our nation’s scientific brilliance to vanquish the virus. We have to vanquish the virus as quickly as we can, because we have a lot of things happening in this country, and we have a great future, but we have to get back to work.
This week, the FDA established the Coronavirus Treatment Accelerator Program, which is expediting the development of new anti- — antiviral and other therapies, and they’re doing it on a very rapid basis. And I think we’re having some very good results. We’ll tell you about that.
HHS continues to speed the development of therapies derived from human blood that have the potential to lessen the severity or shorten the length of the illness. And as you know, last Saturday, the FDA also gave emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine. And the hydroxychloroquine is a — I hope it’s going to be a very important answer. We’re having some very good things happening with it, and we’re going to be distributing it through the Strategic National Stockpile. It’s going into the Strategic National Stockpile to treat certain patients. And we have millions and millions of doses of it; 29 million to be exact.
In addition to that, we’re making it and we’re also getting it from various other locations and countries. In one case, I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning. They make large amounts of hydroxychloroquine — very large amounts, frankly. And I said — they had a hold, because, you know, they have 1.5. billion people, and they think a lot of it. And I said I’d appreciate it if they would release the amounts that we ordered. And they are giving it serious consideration. But they do make — India makes a lot of it.
But we have already 29 million. If you look — I mean, that’s a big number. Twenty-nine million doses. And we’ve got millions of doses that are being made here and many millions of doses that are made elsewhere that are being shipped here, and it will be arriving.
We’re just hearing really positive stories, and we’re continuing to collect the data. But I’ll just speak for myself: It’s been out for a long time. It’s a malaria drug. It’s also a drug for lupus. And there’s a — there’s a study out that people with lupus aren’t catching this horrible virus. They’re not — they’re not affected so much by it. Now, maybe that’s correct; maybe it’s false. You’re going to have to check it out.
But there’s a lot of very positive things happening with that. That’s a game changer if that’s the case. Obviously, we continue to work on the vaccines, but the vaccines have to be down the road by probably 14, 15, 16 months. We’re doing great on the vaccines. I think Johnson & Johnson is leading — seems to be leading in terms of the studies, but we’ll see what happens. But I feel good about that, but that’s down the road.
But tremendous promise with — with what’s just been mentioned. In addition to that, Gilead Sciences has initiated a phase three that’s down the line, meaning clinical studies of the drug remdesivir. Now, it’s approximately 1,000 patients, which is a pretty — pretty good study. Other drugs are also being studied in patients.
And this week, Oracle, a great company, donated a new web portal — Larry Ellison, amazing guy — and platform to the government to gather real-time data on how patients are responding to the various new treatments. And they have a very sophisticated site, we’ll be learning a lot from Oracle. And thank you to them.
We’re also spending economic dollars like you wouldn’t believe, and speeding economic relief to American workers, families, and businesses. Yesterday, the Small Business Administration launched the Paycheck Protection Program to help employees keep paying their workers. In 24 hours, the Small Business Administration, and over 1,200 lending partners, processed over 28,000 loans — it’s, so far, ahead of schedule — and billions and billions of dollars.
It’s worked out incredibly well, and I want to thank Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, and a lot of the big banks that have been involved, and a lot of the community banks. Community banks have really jumped on it. And it’s, so far, going way ahead of schedule.
The SBA also clarified that faith-based organizations, including houses of worship, are eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program — that’s great — as well as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program that you’re familiar with, on the same terms as every other applicant.
If we run out of funding for the employee retention program, I will immediately ask Congress for more money. This is money that’s really going directly to the people that need it — the small businesses that need it and the workers that need it.
Finally, I can — because when we open, we want to open strong, with businesses that are going. Remember, we had the greatest economy in the world, and then one day, we were told we got to shut it down, stop it, tell everyone to stay home, because of this horrible virus. And we did that, and we did the right thing. But now we have to open. We have to open our country.
Finally, I can report that as of today, the State Department has successfully coordinated the safe return of more than 40,000 Americans stuck abroad on over 400 flights from 75 countries. Many of those countries were terrific in helping us, and I appreciate that very much.
Some of them, I had to call the leaders of the country, most of whom I know. And once I did, they snapped, like you wouldn’t believe. They really helped us great. So I appreciate that. So we brought back 40,000 Americans who were literally stuck in some countries, with no chance of getting out, and we got them back. Four hundred flights, seventy-five countries. Think of that. And those countries, in almost every instance, had a big problem with the virus.
I want to thank the American people, most of all, for the selfless sacrifices that they’re making for our nation. I know it’s not pleasant, although some people have said they’ve gotten to know their family better, and they love their family more than ever, and that’s a beautiful thing. They’ve actually gotten to know them. They’re in the same house with their family for a long time. I guess it can also work the other way, perhaps, but we don’t want to talk about that.
And I want to encourage everyone to keep following our guidelines on slowing the spread. Sustaining this war effort is — and that’s what it is; this is a war effort — is the patriotic duty of every citizen. While we may be more physically distant for a time, we’re closer together in the heart and in the spirit.
And through this, great national unity is happening. We’re having a great unity developing that a lot of people didn’t think would be possible to develop like this.
And we will conquer the disease and restore our nation to its full and glorious might. We’re doing really well, and I’m very proud of everybody out there. We’re very proud of you. It’s something that nobody could have ever projected. It’s been over 100 years that a thing like this has happened.
And the problem with this one is the contagion. It’s so contagious. Nobody has ever seen anything like that where it’s so contagious. You can be feet away and just talking to somebody and catch it. You can catch it. You know how long it can live on surfaces. So things that nobody even thought of, the level of contagion.
So, we’re getting there. We’re going to make sure that it’s over soon. And just keep going. It’s not going to be long.
And thank you very much. And with that, I’d like to ask Dr. Hahn to speak. And he’s been doing yeoman’s work at the FDA.
Thank you very much. Doctor, thank you.
DR. HAHN: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m going to speak about hydroxychloroquine and the efforts around that. Just to preface, I’d like to echo what the President said about the American people and the resiliency and the just terrific work. Mitigation is such an important part of our fight against the COVID-19 virus.
Last week, as the President said, we issued an emergency use authorization to allow the donated hydroxychloroquine to come into the country and enter the general circulation. We are prioritizing this drug to come in for clinical trials, and also into general use for physicians, because as you know, physicians, based upon their interaction with the patients, their assessment of the risks and benefits can write a prescription for hydroxychloroquine if they think it’s appropriate for the patient. Being a physician, we do this all the time. And that assessment needs to be done between a patient and a doctor.
And then the third portion is we wanted to make sure that these drugs were in the circulation — in the supply chain, so that people who have them or need them for the other indications — lupus, rheumatoid arthritis — had them available. So that was the purpose of the emergency use authorization.
One other thing I’d like to mention is that we, on Friday, stood up a formal convalescent plasma program. We have a great deal of enthusiasm for that. There are some reports that this is a benefit to patients in other countries who have had the COVID-19 virus.
And what this means is taking plasma from patients who have had the virus and who have recovered, and transferring the immunity — the immunoglobulins, if you will — the immunity from that person to someone who’s sick. And we’re hopefully expanding that across the country. The Red Cross is involved in that program. And I think it shows a great promise. It needs to be studied like other things. But just like I said before, it provides hope. We don’t want to provide false hope, but definitely hope.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Tony, please.
MR. FAUCI: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I’d like to just take a couple of moments to talk a little bit about the public health aspects and how it relates to what the President just said about the need for us to begin to at least think about returning to some degree of normality. And that has to do with what’s going to be happening as we end this week and we go into next week.
You will be seeing — and we should not be surprised because the kinetics of how this virus works — is that we’re going to be seeing that there are going to be deaths that are going to continue to go up. But as I mentioned to this group and to the general public multiple times, there really is a cascading of events where you have new cases, hospitalizations, intensive care, and deaths. So at the same time that we may be seeing an increase in deaths, we want to focus on the effective mitigation is really the number of new cases. And that’s what we’re going to be thinking about and looking about.
So we’re going to pay close attention to that, and hopefully the kinds of mitigations that we’re talking about are going to have the impact to allow us to begin to think about maybe changing a bit.
So the question arises is: Is the mitigation working? So let’s look historically and then just look at the reality of it. Clearly, in the countries — China included — that have implemented very strict kinds of programs of mitigation, clearly it works. In our own country, we’ve seen indication of that in Washington. Remember, Washington State was the first to get hit. But they put in a really good program of mitigation. And if you look at the charts that Dr. Birx showed the other day, they’re still down, they’re doing well.
And the reason is — again, what I’ve said before, but I think it’s worth reiterating — that we have two opposing forces here: the virus, which wants to do what the virus wants to do. Viruses transmit from people to people. When people are separated from each other, virus does not transmit; it doesn’t go anywhere. And that’s the reason why something as simple as the physical separation — because if you look at the Vice President’s chart that he shows all the time here from this podium, every aspect of that, ending the COVID outbreak in 30 days, has some aspect of it, a physical separation — whether that’s avoiding crowds, whether that staying six feet away from people, whether that’s doing teleworking. All of it does that. That’s our most important tool. We’ll be talking about vaccines and drugs and things like that that will mitigate later. But this is what we really have to do.
And I want to — I want to actually just plea, as I do multiple times from here, to the American public: You know, as sobering and as difficult as this is, what we are doing is making a difference. So we really need to continue to do that.
I must tell you, I was just mentioning to the Vice President as we came in: Last night, when I wasn’t here, I went out with my wife and actually did a little powerwalking down Massachusetts Avenue — for those who live in Washington, know what I’m talking about — and we passed a couple of restaurants where people were getting takeout food. The restaurants were closed to people going in, but they were open to takeout.
And I saw something that absolutely made me feel really, really good. They were separating themselves by at least six feet. In fact, some of the restaurants had little things on the floor that said, “Stand here” and then “Stand there.”
And I think if we as a nation pulled together to do that, hopefully when we keep coming back here at these press conferences, we’ll be able to show you that that curve that we keep talking about is going in the right direction.
And I’d be happy to answer questions later. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Okay, please.
Q Mr. President, you said earlier that the virus is springing up in areas you did not expect. Yesterday you said some states in the country are not in jeopardy. The fact that this is unpredictable, isn’t that an argument for every state to have one of these stay-at-home orders?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think so.
Q Why?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, there are some states that are — you have great distance, natural distance. Big land, few people. And they’re in very good shape. And if there is a case, they can quarantine that person, or that person will be separated, will be brought to a hospital, a secure area.
So you do have different cases as opposed to a New York or Los Angeles. Los Angeles is doing incredibly well, by the way. But areas we have lots of people tight together. It’s a big difference.
So, no, it’s — they’re different — there are many different cases.
Please.
Q Mr. President, You mentioned the military off at the top. So 1,000 troops going to New York, and then are we expecting other mass deployments around the country? And then is it just Army? Is it —
THE PRESIDENT: No, not mass. Many of the places are really in great shape. They really have done a fantastic job. And we may add to the thousand. But New York will be getting about 1,000 military people — nurses, doctors, lots of other people — because that’s what they need.
Q So medical military?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Not — like not combat —
THE PRESIDENT: And that’s — medical. No, no, medical military. Medical military.
Please.
Q Sir, you tweeted earlier today that you like the idea of a second coronavirus task force that was focused on reopening the economy.
THE PRESIDENT: Thinking about it.
Q So I was wondering if you were planning to go forward with that.
THE PRESIDENT: Thinking about it. Getting a group of people. And we have to open our country. You know, I had an expression: “The cure can’t be worse than the problem itself.” Right? I started by saying that and I continue to say it: The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. We’ve got to get our country open.
Q Mr. President, in terms of reopening, can you talk about your call with the sports commissioners? Did you say you’d like to see people back, fans back in arenas as soon as August?
THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely, I want — I want fans back in the arenas.
Q By August, though, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I think it’s — I think it’s — no.
Q Is that safe?
THE PRESIDENT: Whenever we’re ready. I mean, as soon as we can, obviously. And the fans want to be back too. You know, they want to see basketball and baseball and football and hockey. They want to see their sports. They want to go out onto the golf courses and breathe nice, clean, beautiful fresh air. No, the —
Q When do you think that people can be back, based on the science that you’re seeing?
THE PRESIDENT: I can’t tell you — I can’t tell you a date, but I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later.
But — and, you know, we’re not going to have to have separation for the rest of our times on the planet. We need it for this period of time. But eventually people are going to be able to occupy those seats and arenas, next to each other, like we have for all of my life and all of your life. They want to sit next to each other at restaurants. They don’t want to be, you know, six feet away.
And some restaurant man called up, and he said, “You know, I’m worried because I have a small restaurant with not too many seats.” I think he said 120. And he said, “If I practice what this is, I’m down to 30 seats. I can’t make it.” I said, “Don’t worry about it. That’s for a short period of time. You’ll be back to your number of seats.” We can’t do that. Otherwise, you’re making everything — that means your stadium is half the size of what it was a month ago.
No, no, they’re going to be close together, but they’re going to be breathing air that’s not infected, that’s not going to kill people.
Please.
Q Since you’re not committing to packing the stadiums by August, what are your contingency plans —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m not committing to it. I’m not committing to it. We’re going to see where we are. That’d be great if we could. But we’re going to be back to good health soon, in my opinion. We’re making a lot of progress, and we’re making progress because, as Tony told the story about the restaurant and about how they were separated sort of automatically, people are doing that. People are doing that. They’re staying in their homes. They don’t want to go out. They’re doing what they know is the right thing to do. It’s — it’s not very complicated. It’s — in many ways, it’s a very beautiful thing to see.
Yeah.
Q But what are your contingency plans for the Republican National Convention?
THE PRESIDENT: We have no contingency plan. We’re having the convention at the end of August, and we think by the end of August, we’ll be in good shape. We have no contingen- — you know, it’s going to be in North Carolina, as you know, in Charlotte. And I think we’re going to have a great convention.
I notice — I think we had an opponent, but I — I almost didn’t know who it was. He got .00001 percent of the vote. But I heard he dropped out three or four weeks ago. I’m not sure. Maybe you could tell me. That’s the kind of opponent I had. And hopefully we have another one just like that in Joe.
Q Mr. President, this weekend, lawmakers are working on the next round release packages. What was not in the stimulus package that you signed last week that you would like to see in phase four?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we’re going to need more money for the small businesses. It’s been working out so well. It’s been so efficient. The banks have been doing an incredible job. I think we’re going to need more money there, I think. You know, we’ll see. But based on the first — the first couple of days, it’s been incredible.
I think that restaurants and entertainment — and that would be — include sports leagues, all forms of entertainment — go back to the original, where they get tax deductibility for what they’re doing and for people who come in and buy tickets or go out for meals. And corporations can then send people into these restaurants who are going to have a hard time, otherwise, opening, in my opinion. And that could be the same for the sports leagues.
So we want to see, for entertainment and for restaurants, deductibility so that corporations can take a deduction. They’ll send their executives, they’ll send people there, and they get a deduction. That is something that will really bring life back to the restaurants; I think make them hotter than before.
You know, they used to have it. And when they ended it, it was really never the same. It was never the same.
Yeah, please.
Q Mr. President, you just said that you want to see as few lives lost as possible in this pandemic.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right. That’s right.
Q But there are still eight governors, all Republicans, who have refused to issue these statewide stay-at-home orders. Your own experts, including Dr. Fauci, have said stay-at-home orders are the most effective way to stop the spread of this virus. So why not do everything possible —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Tennessee just did it.
Q — and urge those governors right now —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Yeah.
Q — to do that?
THE PRESIDENT: We have a thing called the Constitution, which I cherish, number one. Number two, those governors — I know every one of them — they’re doing a great job. They’re being very, very successful in what they’re doing. And as you know, I want the governors to be running things.
Now, in some cases, we’ll supersede, but in this case it’s not —
Q Do you think they should, though? Do you think they should? I’m not asking for you to order them to, but —
THE PRESIDENT: I think it depends — it depends on the individual state that you’re talking about. But they’re doing very well, and they’re doing a magnificent job in running their states.
Q Well, South Carolina has 1,700 cases right now of coronavirus. Utah has 1,255. I mean, are these not states that you think should have those stay-at-home orders in place?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I think they’re doing a great job.
Well, that’s a very small number relative to population.
Q It’s larger than some states that do have stay-at -home orders that are already in place.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s okay. It’s up to the — if I saw something wrong, I saw a massive breakout — of which that’s not — I would come down very hard. But —
Q Isn’t the key in this pandemic getting ahead of those numbers, though?
THE PRESIDENT: No, not in that case. But in the case — I know the states you’re talking about. By the way, I think you’re up to 92 percent is covered. Ninety-two percent of the country is covered. And from a constitutional standpoint, they made the difference. They called the shots.
Yes, Jeff. Go ahead.
Q Mr. President, just a question about messaging. You and the others here are saying people need to continue following the mitigation efforts, but you’re also saying, again, the cure must not be worse than the problem. Which is it?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I’m just saying we have to get this country open, Jeff. It has to get open. This country was not designed to be closed. So we have the greatest we’ve ever had, and then we’re paying people to stay home.
Q But you want it to be closed right now, right?
THE PRESIDENT: Think of it: We’re paying people not to go to work. How about that? How does that play?
Q I understand that.
THE PRESIDENT: And they want to go to work, by the way. They don’t even want — they don’t want money. This country is great. But we’re paying people. We have to get back to work. That’s what I’m saying.
Go ahead, please.
Q Mr. President, this is off topic. It’s about the announcement from last night. It’s a yes or no question, but not that we expect the answer to be yes or no.
But wasn’t Michael Atkinson doing the job of the Inspector General of the intelligence community, the job he was supposed to do, when he simply took the whistleblower complaint to Congress that hadn’t been taken previously? Wasn’t he doing the job that he was supposed to do, that American taxpayers were paying him to do? And why did you decide to terminate —
THE PRESIDENT: I thought he did a terrible job. Absolutely terrible. He took a whistleblower report, which turned out to be a fake report — it was fake. It was totally wrong. It was about my conversation with the President of Ukraine. He took a fake report and he brought it to Congress, with an emergency. Okay? Not a big Trump fan — that, I can tell you.
Instead of saying — and we offered this to him: “No, no, we will take the conversation” — where, fortunately, we had that transcript. If we didn’t have a transcript with the kind of deception and dishonesty that were practiced by the Democrats, I might not be standing here right now. Okay? Fortunately, we had a transcript and it was a perfect transcript, because even the lieutenant colonel admitted it was correct. Okay?
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You asked a question.
So he took this whistleblower — and I keep saying, “Where’s the whistleblower?” Right? “And why was the whistleblower allowed to do this?” Why was he allowed to be — you call it fraudulent or incorrect transcript.
So we offered this IG — I don’t know him; I don’t think I ever met him. I don’t think I — he never even came in to see me. How can you do that without seeing the person? Never came in to see me. Never requested to see me. He took this terrible, inaccurate whistleblower report — right? — and he brought it to Congress.
We offered to have him see my exact conversation. It was all about the conversation, by the way. That was the whole thing, was about the conversation. Right? And then after he saw it, he must’ve said, “Wow,” because as I’ve said it many times and it drives you people crazy, it was a perfect conversation.
So instead of going and saying, “Gee, this is a terrible thing he said about the President’s conversation” — well, it was a fraud. I didn’t say that. And, by the way, you have the whistleblower. Where’s the informer? Right?
And here’s another question: Remember before I did the — before I gave the transcript — in other words, before I revealed the real conversation — where’s the second whistleblower? Remember the second whistle —
Wait, wait, wait, wait. There was going to be a second whistleblower. But after I gave the conversation, he just went away. He miraculously went away.
Where’s the informer? Because there was going to be this informer. Maybe Schiff was the informer. You ever think of that? He’s a corrupt guy. He’s a corrupt politician.
So, listen, I say this: Where’s the informer? Remember, the informer was coming forward. But I gave — because, see, I did one thing that surprised everybody. This gentleman right here said, “Boy, that was a shocker.” I revealed the conversation. I got approval from Ukraine because I didn’t want to do it without their approval. And they said, “Absolutely. You did nothing wrong.”
By the way, President of Ukraine, Foreign Minister said, “He did nothing wrong.” And over that, with 196 to nothing vote by the Republicans — not one dissenting Republican vote — dishonest Democrats impeached a President of the United States. That man is a disgrace to IGs.
All right, let’s go. Next. Please. He’s a total disgrace.
Q Mr. President, did you run by your decision to dismiss the Inspector General by Senator McConnell?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, we’ll get off this because people want to talk about what we’re talking about. But let me just tell you something: That’s my decision. I have the absolute right. Even the fake news last night said, “He has the absolute right to do it.”
But ask him, “Why didn’t you go and see the actual conversation?” There was no rush. He said, “Oh we’d have to rush it.” He even said it was politically biased. He actually said that. The report could have been — you know who the whistleblower is, and so do you and so does everybody in this room, and so do I. Everybody knows. But they give this whistleblower a status that he doesn’t deserve. He’s a fake whistleblower. And, frankly, somebody ought to sue his ass off.
Q I just want to follow up, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: All right, it’s enough with the whistleblower.
Go ahead, please.
Q Mr. President, the governor of New York today said that he is still desperate for ventilators and that he has accepted 1,000 of them from the Chinese government. Are you concerned that states —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what he didn’t say is — okay, let me tell you what he didn’t say.
Two very good friends of mine brought him those whistleblower — brought him those ventilators, right? Two very good friends of mine — they brought them. If you’d like their name, I’ll give you their name.
Q But should states and cities have to rely on —
THE PRESIDENT: No, but he — the governor didn’t —
Q — China and Russia for supplies?
THE PRESIDENT: — mention that. It came through the Chinese — the country of China. But they were given by two friends of mine, but he didn’t tell you that.
Now, the governor also —
Q Who are your friends?
THE PRESIDENT: You’ll see when you read the letter.
The governor also asked for 40,000 — 40,000. He wanted 40,000 ventilators.
Now, the governor, as you know, had a chance to get 16,000 a few years ago. He decided not to get that. The State of New York has asked for help. I’ve given him four hospitals, four medical centers. Then I gave him an additional hospital. Then I gave him military people to operate the hospital. They were not supposed to be COVID hospitals. The boat — the ship is not — an interesting thing happened with the ship. People aren’t in accidents because there’s nobody driving. There’s nobody taking motorcycle rides down the West Side Highway at 100 miles an hour. People are away. So people aren’t being injured.
Now they’re asking whether or not we could open up the ship for COVID. We have given the governor of New York more than anybody has ever been given in a long time. I’ll just say — I was going to say “in history,” but in a long time. And I think he’s happy.
But I think that — because I watched what he said today, and it was fine. I wouldn’t say gracious. It wasn’t gracious. It was okay. I must tell you, Gavin Newsom has been gracious –Los Angeles, California, the job we’ve done, and all of California.
Q But why does that matter if they’re gracious or not gracious if they need the supplies?
THE PRESIDENT: It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. But I think when we’ve given as much as we’ve given to New York, somebody should say —
Nice — I’ll tell you who’s been very nice: Mayor de Blasio has been very nice. He understands what we’ve given him. We brought him some more ventilators, too, yesterday.
But nobody has been given like New York. And I think — I know he appreciates it. He just can’t quite get the words out, but that’s okay.
Q So when he says — but when he says that he needs 40,000 —
Q Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, let me come back to Dr. Fauci’s comments on —
THE PRESIDENT: To which one?
Q Dr. Fauci’s comments —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — on mitigation. On the reproductive value of the virus, the WHO had it up, I think, 2 to 2.6. Others had it a percentage point or two higher. Do we have a new number now based on those mitigation techniques? Have we managed to bring it down?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Deb, I think maybe you should answer that, right? Dr. Birx, please?
Q And is the target to get below 1?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, sure — go ahead.
DR. BIRX: You know, it’s an excellent question. And it’s why all of the modelers — and I really want to thank them again — they’re reevaluating all of their models in light of the level of the impact of the mitigation.
Remember, none of us had really been through this before. So when we modeled school closures and distancing and staying at home, and all of these pieces, that had never really come into the model before. They’re working on that very diligently now.
Of course, just to be clear, we won’t know how valid the models are until we move all the way through the epidemic. What we’re triangulating right now — and instead of working on R naught, we’re looking at testing and triangulating testing test- positive cases, hospitalizations, ICUs, and the whole — and, of course, the recoveries, because that’s also very important to us.
I think it’s very important that the American people know that there are equal number of states with less than 5 percent positives despite high levels of testing. So there are states that are mitigating and making this work. There are also the states that you know of — the 18 states that have the larger outbreaks — and we’re watching them very carefully, triangulating for them all of the information to ensure that clients who come to the hospital are cared for.
And then there are states in the middle that we’re trying to figure out, are they changing or not. Each of those states, and each of those epidemics within those states, may have a different R value. And that is what we’re trying to figure out.
And it’s very variable on each of these factors, but the bottom line is — and I think going into this weekend, it’s really important for the American people to know this: Spain and Italy are moving through this. They are seeing their number of cases drop. They’re seeing the number of people in hospitals drop. We are about, on our models and on the actual data, about 12 days behind them.
At the same time, we see, in the United States, really good case studies of the impact at Washington State, of California, and then a series of smaller states where we’re trying to learn from them how to do surveillance. And with these new HHS, Abbott ID NOW kits — and I just want to thank Admiral Giroir for getting them out — being able to look at testing in a more comprehensive way so we can be doing surveillance and mitigation simultaneously so we can answer that very question.
It’s going to be very difficult to answer at this moment, across the United States, because each metro cluster is on a different pathway as they move through — move through the epidemic. And I think we just really ought to emphasize “through,” because we see Italy, we see Spain moving through. And we hope to be in that same position.
At the same time as the President said, he’s concerned about every single person that is succumbing to this virus. We all are. And that’s why we’re making sure that in this triangulation, they’re tracking minute by minute. When we say FEMA and HHS is tracking minute by minute the ventilator, hospital, and ICU bed need, that’s exactly what’s happening.
And also being flexible and responsive. To have DOD take 1,000 healthcare providers out of their medical corps is a very big deal. I was in the medical corps for 29 years. We never did that. So this is saying we respect and understand the importance and value of the American lives and doing that. But the R values will be variable by state.
Q Can I just follow up? A week ago, we talked about a county-by-county —
THE PRESIDENT: Before I do that, you had breaking news last night — you know that; you saw that — where I think the probable presidential candidate for the Democrats will be Joe Biden, and he agreed that he was correct when I stopped people from China very early — very, very early — from coming into our country. And Dr. Fauci said that was a very big moment because it would be a much different picture we have right now had we allowed thousands and thousands of people from a specific area — I don’t have to go into it — from China, to come in highly infected. It would have been a very different thing.
The other thing — so I appreciate the fact that he did, because I was called “xenophobic,” “racist.” I was called many things when I did that very early. And I got a lot of credit for it in the Federalist. Because the Federalist covered the whole journey. And they said Trump was — I didn’t speak to the author — respected author. They said, “Trump was right at every single move. And on top of that, he was going through a fake impeachment,” a hoax. I was going through a hoax, when I made the decision. And that does take a little time and certainly a little thinking time.
But I appreciated the fact that Joe Biden announced last night that he now agrees that I was correct. You saw the report come out — that I was correct when I stopped people from China coming at a very early date.
Q Mr. President, can we talk about the — Captain Crozier of the USS Roosevelt?
THE PRESIDENT: Which one? What?
Q Captain Crozier, who was removed. The captain who was removed as the commander of the USS Roosevelt.
I don’t know if you saw the videos of sailors cheering for him as he left. Our reporting shows that some sailors have said that they are worried to reenlist because they are not convinced that commanders are taking care of their health and taking care of them.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q What do you say to them? And does how removing —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know much about it.
Q How does removing this captain —
THE PRESIDENT: I can only tell you this —
Q — take care of their health?
THE PRESIDENT: Here we have one of the greatest — here we have one of the greatest ships in the world. Nuclear aircraft carrier. Incredible ship with thousands and thousands of people. And you had about 120 that were infected.
Now, I guess the captain stopped in Vietnam and people got off in Vietnam. Perhaps you don’t do that in the middle of a pandemic or — or something that looked like it was going to be — you know, history would say you don’t necessarily stop and let your sailors gets off, number one.
But more importantly, he wrote a letter. The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place. That’s not appropriate. I don’t think that’s appropriate. And these are tough people. These are tough, strong people.
I thought it looked terrible, to be honest with you. Now, they made their decision. I didn’t make the decision. Secretary of Defense was involved and a lot of people were involved. I thought it was terrible what he did to write a letter. I mean, this isn’t a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that’s nuclear powered. And he shouldn’t be talking that way in a letter. He could call and ask and suggest.
But he stopped in Vietnam. A lot of people got off the boat. They came back and they had infection. And I thought it was inappropriate for the captain of a ship to do —
Q Were you consulted about his removal?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to — I don’t want to comment as to whether or not. But I agree with their decision 100 percent.
In the back, please.
Q Joe Biden actually just attacked you in a tweet. I don’t know if you have seen it.
THE PRESIDENT: He just what?
Q Attacked you. He just said that —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, he didn’t write anything. Look, he has people — he has professionals from the Democrats writing.
Q Mr. President, let me just read what he said. He said, “Donald Trump is not responsible for the coronavirus, but he is responsible for failing to prepare our nation to respond to it.” How do you respond to that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, he didn’t write that. That was done by a Democrat operative. He doesn’t write. He doesn’t — he’s probably not even watching right now. And if he is, he doesn’t understand what he’s watching.
But just so you understand, it was very nice what they wrote. And, I don’t know — you know, they released it at a strange time. You know, sort of a strange time to release something like that. But he admitted I was right.
And if you read the Federalist story, which most of you won’t because you don’t want to, but you’d learn something, because if you go — it goes to a chart, times.
I was early. Dr. Fauci, I think — I don’t think he’s changed his mind, but he said it was a very important step when we stopped China from coming in from the specific area that was heavily infected. We’d have a whole different thing right now.
So I don’t really know what Joe Biden said. I don’t really care. And again, I see — every once in a while I’ll say something, I’ll make a speech, and then it’ll be critiqued and I’ll get this beautiful, brilliant critique. Joe Biden didn’t write that. Joe Biden didn’t write that. He wished he did, but he didn’t.
Go ahead. Please. Back.
Q Sure. I wanted to ask Dr. Fauci a quick question. China has warned of a resurgence of the virus. Has the U.S. developed a plan if, in fact, a second wave of the virus does, in fact, occur here in the country?
DR. FAUCI: Yes. Yes, we do. I mean, one of the things that obviously is parallel with thinking about the possibility, as I mentioned a little while ago, about mitigation allowing us to turn the corner very much on the front burner is what happens when we do, because the risk of there being a resurgent is real.
So what we need to do — and I believe I said this before but it’s worth repeating — that what we need to have in place, and we will have that in place, is that as you then pull back, you have to have the capability of, in a very pristine, precise way, do the kind of containment when you do see it. Because remember, when you get to mitigation, containment takes the backseat because you’re just struggling to mitigate. But when you get it down, you need to make sure it doesn’t resurge. That will require the ability to test, to identify, to isolate, and to do contact tracing. That’s what we have to have in place, and hopefully we will at the time that we then pull back.
Q A question for Dr. Hahn from the FDA. You mentioned the plasma, sir. So these are — this is plasma that were infected, that now either recovered or are doing well enough, and then they’re transferring it to — is it family members? Can you walk us through — that’s working as, kind of, like a case-by-case basis to certain hospitals? What are the results from that? I was just not familiar with that one.
DR. HAHN: So, this is a situation where someone who’s recovered from the virus and doesn’t have the virus in their system at all, you can take plasma — and this is a pretty routine procedure. You can actually donate a couple times a week, a couple times of month, frankly, and give that plasma. And that plasma contains the proteins in the blood that have the antibodies against the virus. You can take that, process it, and then give it to someone who’s ill. And so that allows you to transfer that immunity. It doesn’t have to be matched by family or anything like that.
Since last Tuesday — the Tuesday before last — we’ve allowed academic centers and other laboratories and hospitals around the country to do this on a compassionate-use basis.
What we did was we pulled this together in what’s called an Expanded Access Program and run it through the Red Cross because they’ve got the greatest system and capacity for doing this. And this allows us to scale up so that when people get sick, we can actually have these donated plasma packs given to the patients who are sick.
Q So are people — do people need to be donating plasma? Obviously, some of us don’t know if we’ve had it or recovered. I mean, what should people be doing?
DR. HAHN: So, we’ve started with the Red Cross in this program. We made an announcement yesterday. We are planning to actually scale that up, and we’ll have more information this week. Because we want to make sure we have the systems in place. It’s a superb question.
Q Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: All right, Jeff, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, can you clarify the situation with 3M right now? Germany said that it was an act of piracy that 200,000 masks were apparently diverted from Thailand to the United States, instead of to Berlin. Is that a miscommunication? Did that actually happen? And should 3M be fulfilling contracts for masks to other countries?
THE PRESIDENT: We’re very disappointed in 3M. They should be taking care of our country. And they can sell to others, but they should be taking care of our country.
The people that have dealt with them have dealt successfully with many companies over the last month. They don’t like the way 3M has treated our country. They don’t, frankly, like the representatives of 3M. And no act of pir- — you said piracy, right? Piracy?
Q For Germans — the German order.
THE PRESIDENT: There’s been no act of piracy. No, there’s been no act of piracy. It’s the opposite. 3M has not treated our country well. And if they do, great. And if they don’t, they’re going to have a hell of a price to pay. Okay?
Q But the German order —
THE PRESIDENT: I say it that way. And I watched him on television, on something, talking about how “this is so hard to believe, so hard to fathom.” They ought to get their act together. Because I got involved and I looked at what happened, and they have not — 3M has not treated our country well.
Q Can you just clarify about that German order though?
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead, please.
Q Was that diverted, sir, or was that not diverted?
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll get you the information.
Q And can I ask one for Dr. Fauci? I was wondering about what you’re seeing as far as lupus patients, in regards to coronavirus. I know the President mentioned this earlier, but what does the medicine say?
DR. FAUCI: What is the question? Is that, “What is the incidence of coronavirus?”
Q Yeah, I mean, if you lupus, do you have —
DR. FAUCI: Yeah. Yeah.
Q — a greater chance of getting coronavirus or —
DR. FAUCI: There is — right now, this is being looked at in a natural history study. We don’t have any definitive information to be able to make any comment that that — it’s an obvious good question, because it might be a way for us to get some interesting and potentially important data as to the role of those medications. But that’s something that is now being looked at, but we don’t have any data to be able to say anything definitively.
THE PRESIDENT: And I hope they use the hydroxychloroquine, and they can also do it with Z-Pak, subject to your doctor’s approval, and all of that. But I hope they use it because I’ll tell you what: What do you have to lose? In some cases, they’re in bad shape. What do you have to lose? It’s been out there for a long time, and I hope they use it. And they’re going to look at the — with doctors. Work with doctors. Get what you have to get. But we have it stockpiled, and it’s — we have a lot of it, and we’re getting more of it.
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